and effects of music. With regard to the other art, as I have had the happiness, among other occupations, of enumerating that of building as a constant source of amusement, I shall take upon myself the labour of examining the taste and circumstances of some of our modern buildings. But, before I direct any of them to be abated, or (in the vulgar tongue) to be pulled down, I shall defer the execution of my sentence for a few days, in order to give them sufficient time to tumble down of themselves. The theatres will not be neglected. sures have been taken for obtaining information of what is passing in them, and in other places of entertainment; and though I do not intend to be hasty or severe in my animadversions, yet I deem it proper to give them this early notice, in order that they may correct themselves, for the example of others."

Mea

THE Hero of Cervantes was employed four entire days, in devising a famous

and high sounding name for his immortal steed, Rozinante. A longer time has occupied me in giving a proper title to my proposed work. The Muses Journal, the British Apollo, the Herald of the Arts, the Mercury of Science, and many other names, have been preferred and rejected in their turns. One was too presuming, another wanted simplicity, a third, dignity. At length it occurred to me, that, as I offer myself to the public as a mere guide post, to direct the course of others to moral and intellectual excellence, no name can be more characteristick, than that of THE DIRECTOR; resigning, as I do, all claim to preeminence, and striving only to be the humble instrument, of pointing out to my countrymen, the path which leads to the temple of intellectual fame.

IN the execution of the task which I have undertaken, my chief attention will be directed to the promotion and improvement of the fine arts in this country. During the two preceding reigns they

have been placed in a singular state of neglect and humiliation. HIS MAJESTY, with great honour to himself, has given them a degree of countenance and patronage, which, by extending civilization and promoting manufactures, has increased the resources and prosperity of his empire. Much, however, remains to be done. The public must learn to pay that respect and reverence to the moral and intellectual productions of the fine arts, which they so richly deserve; and the artist must be taught by the encouragement of rank and opulence, and by the protection and patronage of government, to strive for eminence in the higher departments of his profession.

"How few are the boasted and envied acquisitions of human talents (I am transcribing from Mr. Hoare's Inquiry) which have not been perverted to the lamentable purposes of dissention, strife, malignity, and mutual destruction!-The cultivation of the Arts alone is exempt from this accession of dangerous power. They

alone unalterably and necessarily lead to the attainment of the highest, because the happiest, purposes of social intercourse. Beauty, physical and intellectual, the ornament and delight of our nature, is their perpetual object. The temple of the Graces, of all that softens, all that endears, all that unites mankind, is the abode of the Arts. They take their visible course over the surface of all the pleasing emotions of the mind; their invisible one penetrates and pervades them. They have no existence but from those qualities of our nature, which sooth, which delight, which enrapture."

"Theirs are the lessons, and the plans of peace. To live like brothers, and conjunctive all, Embellish life."

THE genius of Milton, Dryden, Pope, Gray, and our other native poets, has taught us to put a just value on the dignity of the poetic art. But the powers of the GRAPHIC MUSE have never been fairly appreciated in this country. Her talents have been neglected and contemned; and

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the general patronage which has been afforded, if patronage like that deserve the name, has been indiscriminate," degrading, and selfish. When I speak of the powers of the graphic muse, I look not to what base uses she has been applied;—but I refer to her genuine and - original character." What (says a poetic artist) is there of intellectual in the operations of the poet, which the painter does not equal? what is there of mechanical, which he does not surpass ?-What is the verbal expression of a passion, compared to its visible presence; the narration of an action, to the action itself brought before the view? What are the verba ardentia' of the poet, to the breathing beauties, the living lustre of the pencil, rivaling the noblest productions of nature, expressing the characteristicks of matter and mind, the powers of soul, the perfection of form, the brightest bloom of colour, the golden glow of light? Can the airy shadows of poetical imagery be compared to the embodied realities of

art ?"